Nick and Suzie's birthday getaway

Sebastain Bach at Ziggy's pt 2

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After that Sebastian started working on his solo career and working with a number of bands and even spent time working with Guns and Roses. In 2000 he was approached by Frank Wilderhorn to replace David Hasselhoff in the title role of his successful show, Jekyll and Hyde. He agreed and is original run was extended by months and fans even gave him the Playbill award for best male replacement in a Broadway show and the critics loved him. He would later go on to star in the Rocky Horror Pictures Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. I had the privilege of seeing him in both Jekyll and Hyde as well as Jesus Christ Super Star and he was incredible. He would continue to work in a number of musical ge...Read More

After that Sebastian started working on his solo career and working with a number of bands and even spent time working with Guns and Roses. In 2000 he was approached by Frank Wilderhorn to replace David Hasselhoff in the title role of his successful show, Jekyll and Hyde. He agreed and is original run was extended by months and fans even gave him the Playbill award for best male replacement in a Broadway show and the critics loved him. He would later go on to star in the Rocky Horror Pictures Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. I had the privilege of seeing him in both Jekyll and Hyde as well as Jesus Christ Super Star and he was incredible.

He would continue to work in a number of musical genres and even one time considered working in country music. In 2002 he stared in the VH1 reality show. Forever Wild. From 2003-2007 he had a reoccurring role in the hit show, Gilmore Girls, as musician Gill. Last year his album Kicking and Screaming was released making it into the top 50 and winning critical appraise from professionals and fans alike. In August 2011, Sebastian suffered a personal set back as his New Jersey home was flooded when Hurricane Irene pounded the East Coast. Many of his Kiss collection as well as his Skid Row mementoes were destroyed but he was able to save his mementoes from his father.

Sebastian spent over an hour entertaining the sold out crowd with Skid Row fans as well as music from his new album. Even though he is now 44, he is still in great shape and still hot. Female fans still love him. He still sounds as incredible as always and puts on a great, high energy show. He loves to interact with his fans having them to sing along and shaking hands with the audience. One fan held up a guitar for him to sign and he remarked he was kind of in the middle of working, but laughed and signed it any way. He even climbed out on the speakers so he could get closer to his fans. Myself and several of my gal pals sang along, screamed, and got to hold Sebastian’s hands and squealed just like when we saw him in our 20s with Skid Row. During his last song, Youth Gone Wild, he even brought a tiny rocker on stage with him who looked to be all of 6 to 8 years old but who knew the words to the song and even sported the horns.

Sebastian has always had a reputation amongst his fans for meeting his fans. After the show we were told there was a meet and greet in the back. I was so excited for both myself and my friend Rebecca who is a huge fan and had wanted to meet him. She was in front of me and when she meet him he gave her a huge hug and then I could see her talking with Sebastian and he gave her another big hug and this time just held her for a minute and when he was done I could see she was crying and saw Sebastian wiping away tears himself. My friend left with a huge smile on her face and I asked her what he said to her. She explained to Sebastian how much his music had meant to her and how she had been in and out of the hospital for the past 3 years. He asked her what was wrong and she told him about her medical problems. He again hugged her and told her he would be thinking of her and how humbled that when she was so sick she listed to his music to make her feel better. And that is how Sebastian is..a very sincere person who truly loves and appreciates his fans. He was only supposed to sign merchandise that was sold there but signed everything people brought. I brought along my backstage sign from Jekyll and Hyde and he was glad to talk about the show. He seemed to really appreciate it when fans knew him from other than just his bands.

Sebastian can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

Website: www.sebastianbach.com.

Sebastian is the consummate performer giving his all and putting on a fantastic show for his fans. But he is also a very down to earth person who loves being around his fans. And that just as to his sexiness. If Sebastian is coming to your town, make sure you go see him.

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Ziggy's

Hotel | "Sebastain Bach at Ziggy's pt 1"

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The last part of our trip ended up with us meeting a group of our friends and heading out to see one of our favorite singers, Sebastian Bach who would be performing at Ziggy’s in Winston Salem. Ziggy’s.I have been going to concerts at Ziggy’s for years. But for 27 years Ziggy’s occupied space near Wake Forest University. I saw some of my favorite bands back in the day and loved going to the shows at Ziggy’s. But that location closed down and for 3 years there was no Ziggy’s. There were many rumors as to what happened. Everything from finances to health issues were given as the reason the club closed and I am really not sure why the club closed. But Jay Stephens reopened the cl...Read More

Ziggy's
170 West 9th Street
Winston-Salem 27101
(336) 722-5000

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Anthrax/Testament/Death Angel in concert pt 2

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Testament. Testament began their band in 1983 in Berkley California with Eric Peterson, Alex Skolnick, Greg Chastain, and Steve Sousa. Sousa would later be the front man for another thrash band, Exodus, and Chuck Billy would take his place. In 1986 they were signed to Atlantic Records and in 1987, their debut album, The Legacy was released and became a top 50 album. In fact Testament would go on to have a number of records in the top 50. This was usual for a thrash band to achieve such a feat. They became successful with hits such as Souls to Black, New Order, and Blessed by A Burden. To date the band has 9 albums, 4 live albums, six compilation albums, and six singles. In 2000...Read More

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Anthrax/Testament/Death Angel in concert pt 1

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Just in case you’re not familiar with these bands, let me give you a little history. Heavy metal is a genre of music that became popular during the 80’s. It features lighting speed riffs and the musicians generally have long hair and tattoos and often wore black leather and metal spikes. There are a number of divisions within the heavy metal genre and even more subcultures. Metal, glam metal, sleaze metal, thrash metal, speed metal, and death metal are just several of the labels of metal. These bands are known as thrash metal which kind of rebelled with the pretty boy hair bands of the day and have faster, pulse pounding riffs, and the singers often have more of a grunt than actual signing. Females ar...Read More

Just in case you’re not familiar with these bands, let me give you a little history. Heavy metal is a genre of music that became popular during the 80’s. It features lighting speed riffs and the musicians generally have long hair and tattoos and often wore black leather and metal spikes. There are a number of divisions within the heavy metal genre and even more subcultures. Metal, glam metal, sleaze metal, thrash metal, speed metal, and death metal are just several of the labels of metal. These bands are known as thrash metal which kind of rebelled with the pretty boy hair bands of the day and have faster, pulse pounding riffs, and the singers often have more of a grunt than actual signing. Females are general fans of glam metal and all its subcultures while thrash metal and its divisions are often made up of males. Back in the day it wasn’t unusual for me to go to a thrash show and be the only girl there. I am pretty much a fan of most metal labels and have been a fan of all 3 bands for several decades now.

Anthrax.

Anthrax is one of the most well know of thrash bands and one of the most visible. They were one of the first thrash bands to gain national recognition and in 1985 they were the first thrash band to be signed to a major label and were signed by Island Records. They are considered to be one of the grandfathers of thrash along with Metallica and Megadeth though they never quite received the recognition the other two bands have had.

The band began in 1981 in New York with Scott Ian and Danny Liker and singer John Bush. In 1983 Joey Belladonna took over as vocalist for the band and the band became to gain national recognition. But Joey is generally recognized as the original singer of the band since he was the singer as the band was gaining recognition. This debate was brought up on a recent episode of That Metal Show where the topic was what singer did a great job talking over for another singer and Joey was mentioned. But was not added to the list since most fans think of John taking Joeys position several years ago.

In 1989 MTV featured a contest where the band would come to some lucky (or unlucky) fans house and play then trash it. In 1992 the TV show Married With Children featured an episode where Bud won such a contest and featured the band. The band has also been seen WWE Raw, News Radio, Cheers, and Ask Dr. Ruth. They have been a part of numerous video and movie soundtracks. They often work with rap musicians including Public Enemy and have worked with other artists as varied as DimeBag Darrel and Roger Daltry. The band did have one dark spot in their history. After the Anthrax breakouts near 9/11 the band had doubts if they should continue to use their name since the deaths that occurred from the disease, but decided not to let the bad guys win and kept their name.

Scott Ian and Charlie Benante are the only band members to be featured on all their albums. To date the band has released 10 albums, 20 singles, and an EP. And 2 years go the band toured as part of the Big 4 tour which included Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer selling out major venues all over the world. At one point their roadie, John Connelly took over the vocals and he would later join forces with original member Danny Liker and formed Nuclear Assault (another favorite band of mine). From 2007-to 2010 Joey Belladonna left the band, but much to fans happiness, he is back and touring with the band. Some of their most popular songs are Almost the Living, Into the Most Pit, Judge Dredd (and was featured in the movie of the Sylvester Stallone action movie of the same name) and Indians. Many of the bands have also worked on their own solo projects. Today the band consists of members Joey Belladonna, Scott Ian, Frank Bell, Charlie Benante and Rob Caggiano.

The band is always high energy and consistently put on a show for their thongs of fans. They are known to enjoy moshing and run around on the stage even though the members are now all middle aged. The band played fan favorites including the songs I had listed and newer materials. Joey’s voice is still as strong and as powerful as always and the members still sound as they did several decades when I first saw them. The fans still respond to the band and sing right along with their favorite songs. They played for over an hour to the sold out crowd and came back for 3 more songs for their encore. Today it is often a family affairs since they often have their families on the road with them and you can see their kids enjoying watching dad work!

The band does like to encourage their fans to get into the mosh pit. This is an open pit where generally male fans run around and ram into each other like batting rams. Never understood it and it looks really stupid for middle aged guys to do it. Also many clubs do not want mosh pits or at least have an area just for that so other fans don’t get hurt. So as much as I love the band I thought it was very stupid of them to encourage that and body suffering since those caught were promptly escorted out!

I had a great time at the show and loved signing right along with the band. And while Anthrax does have female fans, they are still mainly a male fan base. This show though, we had to watch the band from the side of the club. After Testament my bladder was yelling at me and I had to go to the ladies room. I knew as crowded as it was I would never get back to the front, so we just left and came back and enjoyed the show from the side. Now when I saw them in Charlotte I was right up front and got allot of attention from Joey who at one point even grabbed my camera from me and took my picture after taking plenty of him. Joey should stick with the day job of being a lead singer! But even though he has gotten a little older (and so have I) he is still absolutely gorgeous. This concert also featured the unexpected return of Scott Ian. Some weeks before he had been hospitalized for an infection and was due to be out longer, so fans were glad to see Scott back and in full force. Unfortunately Charlie was not at the show. His mother had become terminally ill and he left the tour for a while to be with here. Testament drummer Greg is on of the hardest working guys out there doing double duty with both Testament and Anthrax! And doing a great job with both.

Website: www.anthrax.com

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The Orange Peel

Attraction | "A top venue to see a band! "

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The Orange Peel is one of the top concert venues in the country and Nick and I were here to see the thrash metal trio of Death Angel/Testament/Anthrax. I am a huge thrash metal fan since the 80’s and when the band was in our town a few months ago I got Nick to agree to go see them since I think he looks like the lead singer of Testament, Chuck Billy, when they first started out. He became a fan so when I found out they would be playing the Orange Peel he agreed to go away for the weekend. It is funny that the club that has just in the past year hosted some of my favorite thrash bands including Danzig, Corrosion of Conformity, these guys and soon…Cannibal Corpse, would spend more than a dec...Read More

The Orange Peel is one of the top concert venues in the country and Nick and I were here to see the thrash metal trio of Death Angel/Testament/Anthrax. I am a huge thrash metal fan since the 80’s and when the band was in our town a few months ago I got Nick to agree to go see them since I think he looks like the lead singer of Testament, Chuck Billy, when they first started out. He became a fan so when I found out they would be playing the Orange Peel he agreed to go away for the weekend.

It is funny that the club that has just in the past year hosted some of my favorite thrash bands including Danzig, Corrosion of Conformity, these guys and soon…Cannibal Corpse, would spend more than a decade as of all things..a roller skating rink! From 1950 to 1962 the building on Biltmore Ave. was the place to be on Saturday night. But instead of it being the place to see some great bands, it was the place to lace up your skates and skate the night away at the Skyland Rink.

After that for many years it would be a nightclub and was one of the premier clubs in Western North Carolina. It was a top R&B/Soul club that would feature tops bands such as the Commodores and the Bar Kays. It featured DJ’s that were from one of the few black owned FM radio stations at the time, WBMU. After that stint it sat vacant for several years and then spent some time as an auto parts warehouse. Eventually Julian Price would open it back up as the Orange Peel.

Today the club is once again a premier live club venue. It has been written up in such publications such as USA Today, Southern Living Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Self Magazine, and Cosmo. It has been featured on Turner South Network. In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the top 5 places to see a concert. And in the May 2011 issue of GQ it was written up as well.

In 2009 the capacity was increased to 1100 concert goers. Since NC does not allow smoking in public places, a covered smoking deck was added. At the lower level, the 75 person capacity PULSE was added which features live feeds from upstairs on concert nights. Bob Dylan, Blondie, Sonic Youth, Joan Jett, Lauryn Hill, Ice Cube, and Cyndi Lauper are amongst the performers who have graced the stage here. And June of 2007, the Smashing Pumpkins had a 9 concert run here. The club is known for featuring well know artists and up and coming bands. In addition to concerts they host several benefits through out the year. The venue can also be rented for galas, parties, weddings, and have even been rented for a memorial service. The place is also rumored to be haunted! While I can remember exactly what is going on here, I do remember when I did a ghost tour here several years ago, stopping by the club and was told a story about some odd things going on here. And when we were talking to Death Angel front man, Mark, I mentioned it was rumored to be haunted. He got a strange look on his face and said he thought something odd was going on!

They do have a full service bar. Since this is the mountains of NC, they do have coat check. But keep in mind it is several racks and you hang your coat there and hope it is still there when you get back! As I mentioned they do have a nice covered area for smokers. Cameras are allowed without flash photography. Some shows are all ages and this show was. The all ages shows do end earlier than the 18 or 21 and older shows. The club does not have dining, but there are number of restaurants within walking distance and they are located in downtown Asheville. There is limited on site parking. We had to park at a paid lot around the corner for $5. There is also parking uptown but there are parking meters.

This was my first time at the Orange Peel and for the most part I really enjoyed the venue. The stage is huge giving the bands plenty of room to roam around. The stage is fairly low and there is no barrier between you and your favorite rocker. I also liked the fact they have a huge water cooler and cups for patrons to encourage designated drivers. As the designated driver I like that. Also the ladies room, unlike some clubs, has plenty of bathrooms so there was never a long line! And even from the back of the club, you can still get a pretty good view of the stage. And exit and reentry is allowed.

I only had two complaints. As I mentioned before, cameras are allowed but no flash photography. Well my camera does not do well indoors at a concert with a flash on, so I wasn’t using mine. Twice a very rude came employee over and told me to turn my flash off. The third time, I screamed at him I wasn’t using my flash and this time he backed off. The lighting here from a fans prospective was horrible. Red lights wreak havoc with my camera and they used lots of red lights and there was a VERY bright light right in my eye sight. So when I was watching Testament, Eric was in front of me and I could only guess it was Eric when he was directly in front of me and all I could see was Eric’s body and a big ball of light!

If you are coming for a well known act, I highly suggest getting tickets in advanced and picking them up early or getting them day of BEFORE concert time. As we came around the corner there was a huge line snaked around and my heart sank as I thought I would not be close to my beloved Chuck Billy. As we got to the steps we noticed the sign said ticket pick up and purchase. Since we had our tickets in hand we got to go on in and I went right to the stage, allowing one person between me and yummy Chuck. By the end of the evening the show was sold out and was quite crowded.

You can find the Orange Peel on Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, and Google Places.

Website: www.orangepeel.net.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on March 16, 2025

The Orange Peel
101 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, North Carolina 28801
(828) 225-5851

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Overview

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Overview.If you have read my previous journals, you will notice some changes to my journals. I have a new relationship with my fiancé, Nick. This was our first trip away since becoming a couple. We have a love of heavy metal music. So this will be the first of many Nick and Suzie’s adventures and many of them will center around of our love of all things metal.When I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite bands would be playing in Ashville and it would be right around Nick’s birthday, so we decided to go up to Asheville and then to Winston Salem to hit 2 great concerts.The first leg of our trip took us to Asheville. We stayed at the Best Western of Ashev...Read More

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Best Western of Asheville Biltmore East

Hotel | "Nice place for a birthday getaway"

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Since I am no longer a travel agent…I don’t get to stay in my 3 and 4 diamond hotels. But not to worry..as long as I have a clean place to lay my head..I am ok. Our experience. Nick and I arrived at our hotel mid afternoon. Check in was a breeze. We were in and out in less than 15 minutes. We pulled around and went on into our room. We have a very nice room and the back row of the property. We check into our room which is clean and comfy and we lay down for a nap. As I arrive, I notice a cute gazebo near our room which would have gotten some use from us if it hadn’t been so cold. Nick did pose in front of it when we left. Our room. We have a king smoking...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on March 14, 2025

Best Western of Asheville Biltmore East
501 Tunnel Road
Asheville, North Carolina 28805
(828) 298-5562

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Quality Inn Coliseum

Hotel | "It is just a place to stay for the night"

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Like I said earlier, I am no longer a travel agent which means I no longer get to stay in 3 and 4 diamond properties for $80. Nick had stayed at this property before on business and liked it and they also give him a great rate so this would be our place to stay for the night. Our room.We had a king sized smoking room. We had a desk to work on, a microwave/mini fridge combo. The bathroom was actually spacious this time. The sink area and the bathroom are separate and there is a coffee maker in the sink area. The room was a little drab and worn looking but at least it was clean. Were on the first floor and rooms are on the outside. Given the location of our hotel, I would h...Read More

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on March 14, 2025

Quality Inn Coliseum
531 AKRON DR
Winston Salem 27105
336-767-8240

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